


Wherever Would I Be

by useyourtelescope



Category: While You Were Sleeping (1995)
Genre: F/M, Family, Wedding Planning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:27:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25528165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/useyourtelescope/pseuds/useyourtelescope
Summary: Jack and Lucy were thinking of having a small wedding. The Callaghans have other ideas.
Relationships: Jack Callaghan/Lucy Moderatz
Comments: 14
Kudos: 28
Collections: Just Married Exchange 2020





	Wherever Would I Be

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tablelamp](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tablelamp/gifts).



> Thank you to my beta, htbthomas.

Jack had never put much thought into his wedding day. He knew his family would be there, and if he’d stopped to think any further he’d imagined a merry, joyous occasion, but he hadn’t ever considered the details. 

Soon after he proposed he discovered Lucy had never been that concerned with the niceties of her wedding day either; as soon as they agreed on Florence as their honeymoon destination that was where her energy was focused. Not that there was much to plan there either, Lucy having done plenty of research into a trip to Florence over the years, it seemed all they needed to do was make the required bookings and pack their bags. Getting married beforehand was more of a formality, so getting the certificate signed and having a nice meal with the Callaghans and a handful of friends afterwards seemed like celebration enough to Lucy and Jack.

“City Hall!” Midge had exclaimed when Jack had telephoned his mother to relay this decision. “You can’t get married at City Hall.”

“What’s wrong with City Hall?” Jack said. “Peter nearly got married in a hospital.”

“Exactly,” Midge replied, tutting. “This time we need to do it properly. Ox, tell your son he can’t get married at City Hall.”

Jack heard his father’s loud voice carry down the line, “Which one?”

“Which one?” Midge repeated indignantly, her voice rising. “Which one do you think?”

“Did Ashley Bartlett-Bacon change her mind again?” Ox asked, his amusement evident.

Not entirely sure whether Midge’s subsequent grumblings were directed towards him or his father, Jack decided to wait this out. He turned his head across his living room to where Lucy - his fiancée - was sitting on the couch. 

“Everything okay?” she asked. Her knees were drawn up to her chest, the sleeves of her oversized sweater pulled down over her hands and Jack very much wished he had bothered to update the phone in his old apartment to a cordless so he could have been sitting next to her this whole time. 

“Absolutely,” he said.

Her eyes danced as she considered him, clearly skeptical, and he was struck once again by how quickly she could see through his bluffs. He supposed he hadn’t been trying particularly hard this time, but when you were used to being part of a family like the Callaghans you got used to little things going by unnoticed more often than not. Lucy, however, saw all. 

“Is Lucy there?” Midge asked suddenly, her voice brightening. “Put Lucy on the phone.”

“Why?” Jack asked, growing concerned. 

“Can’t a mother want to talk to her future daughter-in-law?”

Jack was suspicious, but having gleaned that she had been requested, Lucy had already risen from the couch and approached him. 

“I’m sure it’s fine,” Lucy said as she took the receiver he so reluctantly offered her. 

It was a phrase she repeated to him the following weekend when they found themselves outside his parents' front door, arriving for ‘wedding planning’ after his mother had succeeded in convincing Lucy to have a slightly bigger affair than they had first discussed.

Any resistance Jack might have had to the change of plans fell through when Lucy had said in a small voice, “It might be nice to have something special,” with that look in her eyes. 

But he was still not convinced it was going to be as fine as his future wife believed. She might have got the measure of his family in quite a short space of time, but after less than two months she could hardly be expected to realise the heights to which they could reach.

Lucy met his dubious look with a comforting one of her own. “How bad could it be?”

“You’ll see,” Jack said with conviction before opening the door. The air was unseasonably mild for late February in Chicago, but they couldn’t stand out there all afternoon. If nothing else, they’d be found by Saul when he eventually snuck out for a cigarette. 

Despite his confidence, he still hadn't expected the greeting they received. His mom, ever the courteous host, asked after their morning as she hugged them hello, but she barely gave them enough time to peel off their jackets before hurrying them into the kitchen. 

Jack was used to a messy kitchen, his mother incapable of cooking for less than double the number of expected guests, but instead of bowls and pans the table was covered in papers, with lists and diagrams across them all.

Lucy and Jack locked eyes just as Mary came in, sparing her brother a brief hug before she whisked Lucy away on 'important wedding business'.

“It’s my wedding too,” Jack called to their retreating backs, but there was no heat behind it; somehow he felt his sister was probably the safest person to leave Lucy with until he managed to rein his mother in a tad.

Midge had already taken a seat and clicked her pen on, while Ox stood behind her with his ear cradled into the phone. Ox waved at his son, making a face that suggested a work call, as Jack took the seat opposite Midge. 

“What’s all this?” 

“Seating plans,” Midge said, an air of the obvious about her. 

“Did you buy a second calendar for this?” he asked, noticing the one laid out next to her hand-drawn diagram of tables, smaller than the usual family size calendar hung on the wall.

“Well, I had to have some way of tracking the dates different venues were available and we’d already started marking up the calendar—You know, it’s Ma’s birthday in three weeks.”

“God forbid, we don’t write down Elsie’s birthday on the calendar.” At Midge’s stern look, Jack went on, “Ma, the only person likely to forget Elsie’s birthday date is _Elsie —_And Peter,” he said.

“He’ll remember,” Midge replied confidently. 

“His assistant will remember,” Jack said easily. “But forget about Peter; Ma, you told Lucy it would be just friends and family.”

“And that’s all I’m inviting—Jack!” she said when he tugged on the sheet of paper in front of her so he could read it more clearly.

“That’s more than a hundred people, Ma. And this,” he started rifling through the calendar, “you’ve got dates all through the year.”

“Well, you know how the best places get booked up so far in advance.”

“We don’t want to wait six months to get married.” Hell, Jack didn’t want to wait three months, and he didn’t think his mother, who had raved about Lucy becoming part of the family, was in favour of a drawn out engagement either. She hadn’t had a problem with Peter and Lucy potentially getting hitched before Peter had recovered enough to be discharged from the hospital, he didn’t understand why she suddenly wanted to wait until the Fall just so they could get married in a fancy building. The big wedding he understood - Midge Callaghan’s definition of ‘a few friends and family’ easily surpassing anyone’s reasonable expectations - but not such an elaborate one. 

When he posed this to his mother, Midge twisted her hands and looked away. “It’s just when I was getting groceries the other day, I ran into Celia Henson and she was telling me all about her son’s wedding plans - you remember Celia, Jack, she baked that steak pie when we had the street get-together - “

“The meatiest steak pie you’ve ever tasted,” Ox said wistfully, leaning against the wall, too busy daydreaming to dodge his wife’s hand that came out to shove his side. 

“She knew I was bringing the savoury pies and she was supposed to bring pie for dessert.”

“Ma,” Jack said, sensing where this was going.

“There was no dessert pie, Jack!” Midge exclaimed.

“Ma, my wedding is not going to be turned into some competition with your friends!”

“I told you he wouldn’t go for it Midge.”

“Oh, you shush,” Midge said. “And I would hardly call Celia a _friend_.” But she did relent on the fancy venue. 

The scale of the invite list was harder to tackle. 

“What about Jerry?” Midge asked, as she and Jack haggled over the list of people she’d come up with. “We have to invite Jerry.”

“I haven’t seen Jerry since we were eighteen.”

“He’s your cousin,” Midge said.

“He lives in Seattle now, I doubt he’s going to come back to Chicago just for the wedding.”

“If he doesn’t come, he doesn’t come. But he’s going on the invite list.”

Jack sighed. “Fine.”

“And then if we invite Jerry, we have to invite Rodney.”

“Who’s Rodney?” Jack asked.

Midge gaped while Ox, with one ear still on the telephone, shouted “He’s your cousin! You can’t remember your own cousin?”

Jack, struggling to remember a cousin called Rodney, shrugged. “When did I last see him?” he asked.

“I don’t know, ask your mother - No, not you!” Ox yelled into the phone.

“Of course you know Rodney, “ Midge said. “You spent half the evening at Ma’s last birthday party talking to him.”

“Oh, you mean RJ?” Jack said.

“I’ll have to think of where to put them though - Rodney’s got four kids.” Midge said, pulling the sheet with sketched seating arrangements to the front of her pile. 

“Maybe we should finalise the list before doing seating arrangements,” Jack said hopefully. 

“Well, you have to know where everyone’s going to sit. Besides, Peter asked.”

Jack raised his eyebrows. “Oh, Peter’s coming?”

“I thought you said he was invited to the wedding!” 

“Of course Peter’s invited, he’s my brother - but last time I saw him he said he wasn’t coming.”

“That was just bluff,” Ox said. “You know Peter, he doesn’t like to be shown up.”

Jack did know. “So, why has he changed his mind?” Jack looked between Ox and his mom. “Did he ask about seating arrangements so he can be made the head of his own table?”

Midge gave her son a scoling look but glanced away before admitting. “He wants a plus one.”

“Did he get back together with Mrs _._ Ashley Bartlett-Bacon?” Jack guessed, making Ox chuckle.

“Peter has a new girlfriend,” Midge explained. “He wants to bring her to the wedding.”

“Can’t be that serious if he’s willing to introduce her to us.”

“Jack!” Midge exclaimed, swatting him with her tea towel. “Lucy, won’t mind though, will she?”

It was on the tip of Jack’s tongue to say no, the ever amenable Lucy would not mind - if anything, she’d probably say something about it being nice that Peter had someone - but seeing an escape route from the conversation Jack said he would ask her.

He found Lucy and Mary in the living room where a number of catalogues were strewn across the coffee table and the floor, all open to show various styles of dresses. Lucy was smiling as Mary pointed out different pictures to her, but he could tell from the thin pull of her lips that she was a little overwhelmed.

“Now, I like this style, but not the colour,” Mary said. “I can’t wear yellow at all really, it washes me out.” 

“No yellow,” Lucy said seriously. “Got it.”

“But then,” Mary said, pointing to another, “I don’t know if this cut would suit me.” 

“I thought you were going to help Lucy pick her dress, not yours,” Jack said, drawing their attention.

“We were doing both,” Mary said with a pout before suddenly flipping a few of the catalogues closed. “And you’re not supposed to see the bride’s dress before the wedding, it’s bad luck.”

“I wouldn’t be too worried, Mary,” Lucy said jovially. “I’d say marrying the woman who was about to marry your brother is bad luck enough.”

Both Lucy and Jack laughed, while Mary made a face at both of them, clearly not sharing their sense of humour. 

“I’m serious,” Mary said, hiding more of the pictures as Jack approached from her side of the couch. “Jack!” she  shrieked when he reached down and mussed up her hair. 

“Scram, I need to talk to Lucy.”

“Urgh, fine.” She stood with a pout, though it was soon sated by Lucy’s gentle reminder they would continue looking for Mary’s bridesmaid dress later. Mary made a show of sneaking one picture without turning the page to Jack, giving a pointed look to Lucy, before scampering away.

“Is that the one you’re going to wear?” Jack asked as he sat down.

“Maybe,” Lucy said coyly, inching closer to him on the couch. “How’s the guest list coming?”

“That depends.”

“On what?”

“On what your thoughts are on eloping,” Jack said, making Lucy giggle. 

She settled her head against his shoulder as the front door opened and Saul arrived. Saul waved over to them before embracing Mary, who had returned at the sound of the new arrival, and then Elsie, who had just woken up from her nap and spent the next ten minutes telling them all about her dream about ruling over an island.

“Ma!” Midge’s voice carried down the hall from the kitchen. “You’ve been watching too many old movies again.”

As Midge and Elsie started to parry words, all at an unnecessary volume, Jack met his sister’s eyes and they shared a long-practised look of exasperation. 

But when his gaze drifted nearer to Lucy, she showed no sign of irritation, her smile was soft and fond. 

Even though Jack hadn’t put much thought into his wedding day itself, he had hoped he would meet someone who would fit in with his family. But that was something he’d thought would take time. He had never expected to meet Lucy who had become a part of the family almost immediately, without him even being present.

“What are you thinking about?” Lucy asked, jolting him out of his thoughts.

“You.”

“Oh yeah?” she asked, her eyes alight. “What about me specifically?”

“Specifically?” Jack said, his voice deepening. “I was wondering whether they had a catalogue for what you might wear on the wedding night.”

Lucy’s smile widened, but before she could respond another voice piped up, “Oh, don’t bother buying anything new for the wedding night, dear.” 

Jack looked over to discover that while Mary and Saul had disappeared, Elsie had ended up nearer them than he had realised.

“I have plenty you could wear,” Elsie continued, dead serious. 

Jack practically choked, but Lucy somehow managed to thank Elsie most kindly, only letting her giggles escape once she had left the room. 

“Jack?” Midge called out to him. “Have you asked Lucy yet?”

“Have you asked me what?” Lucy asked, her low tone struggling to be heard over Midge now greeting Saul and Ox complaining down the phone, even though they were all in another room. 

Jack sighed. “I think I’m gonna need a drink.”

Lucy laughed lightly, taking his hand as she pulled him off the couch and led him towards the rest of his family. 

But this time when she said it was going to be fine, he believed her.


End file.
